Cover
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MANHATTAN BROTHERS
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TRACK LISTING
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ARTISTS
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NOTESTrack personnel sourced from Rob Allingham's liner notes from the CD The Very Best of the Manhattan Brothers. Miriam Makeba’s first published record with the Manhattan Brothers (GB 2007) was featured in a large advertisement put out by Gallo in the November 1954 issue of Drum magazine. There is no mention of Makeba in the advert or on the record label which simply credits her “with accompaniment”. Both Laku Tshoni ‘Langa and Baby Ntsoare would become hugely successful for the Manhattans and Makeba. These were her third and fourth recordings with the group who were signed with Gallo Records. Written originally by Mackay Davashe, Laku Tshon iLanga, was Makeba’s first big hit with the Manhattan Brothers. Gallo had sent the original recording earlier that year to Decca, an associate company overseas, and after some interest was expressed, Gallo subsequently requested that the group re-record the song in English for an international market. With the help of American composer, Tom Glazer, Lovely Lies was the result pressed on the London label (London 1610). Because the composing process was generally quite fluid, Joseph Magotsi (of the Manhattan Brothers) claimed that the Manhattans had an arrangement to share any composing fees with all involved regardless of who got the final credit. Davashe honored this arrangement for the original release but then conveniently failed to do the same for the English version. (Rasmussen) The credits in the latter went to Davashe / Glazer. Makeba was not a fan of the new English lyrics—she felt that much of the core social drama of the original had been removed. Nevertheless, Lovely Lies became their first big international hit and also the first South African song to enter the Billboard Top 100 in the United States, reaching position 45 in March of 1956. (Allingham) (Billboard) |
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